When I signed the rental contract for my apartment, because I didn’t have a Japanese who could serve as a guarantor, my real estate agent recommended an insurance service that fulfills that purpose for an annual fee of ¥10,000. I’m guessing many foreigners use such a service. My question is, it is now the 3rd year of me living there and I’m wondering if I still need to keep paying for this service? I asked my landlord and his answer was vague but from what I could gather he doesn’t necessarily require it. At the time when I was moving forward with the contract, I would have done anything just to get my foot in the door to secure a place, considering how challenging it was as a foreigner to find a landlord who would accept me as a tenant. If one should always have a guarantor when renting in Japan, perhaps I could now find a guarantor who could supplant that service? Any thoughts? Thank you.
2 comments
Not just foreigners, guarantor companies are increasingly common, and explicitly stated as part of rental agreements by landlords as opposed to your own personal choice of guarantor. If yours was voluntary at the start though, don’t see why you couldn’t negotiate a “real” guarantor with the landlord.
In most places, you can switch to another guarantor after 1-2 years.